The Good Commander
Commander Responsibilities: How to Maintain Order The chain, the weakest link, you know the cliché. But what is the weakest link in the grunt squad? Is it the rogue member who never follows orders? Is it a commander that leads by the seat of his pants never having a bigger plan, and tags along with the zerg? A squad can only follow what a commander lays out for them, a truly organized squad that is. If the men are ready to fight, armed, and accept leadership, and the commander does not know what to do or where to go, then the fight is already lost. This page, more than any other, will be debated by many for the points it will try and make. Simply because NO ONE leads the same way. Here is the quick list of squad leader responsibilities that will make anyone a better commander, even if they pick only one or two to heed. *Use your ability as a squadleader to relay ALL Information to the squad. Draw a mental line from your start point to your target, mark your target with a waypoint. Use your SL tools to show the prime target is, CC/Gens? Do all this and there will be less chatter on TS because you can simply answer, look at the map. And after 5-6 times of this, they will begin to just check the map. *Blowing Gens is not a terrible thing. If the force is stalled out trying to capture a base for over a half an hour, then start thinking about blowing the generators because the momentum is being lost. Never attack the generator room first though, always try for the spawn tubes first IF possible, some spawn tubes require you to take down generators first. *A Leader must always appear to have a plan. Even if you don’t you must appear to know what you are doing, and especially what the next target is. The squad looks to its commander for information, and they expect him/her to have it, at all times. To this end, watch the map, stay mentally ahead of the zerg, and have your NEXT target in mind while attacking your current. Any down time you have should be spent looking at the map and consulting with other commanders about the next targets. *Don’t hesitate to kick squad members. If you are running a tight squad, and some of the people are lagging all over the map, not listening to orders, don’t think twice about warning them that if they don’t get in line, they’re on their own. The ones who want to play tactically will tighten up and come join the squad. The others will probably leave of their own volition. *An SL’s most important job is keeping the squad together. Everything else is secondary to this fundamental rule. When you squad lead you are NO longer an individual, you ARE the squad. The things you do as a single soldier are not as important as keeping your squad together and informed. That is an SL’s greatest, hardest task. *Understand you MAY BE WRONG. Things change fast on the field, what may have worked 5 min ago may end up a disaster now. If a current plan isn't working, change it, change it fast if you have to. Make sure everyone knows what's happening. *Once you have a Plan, go with it. Don’t get distracted by ‘pretty targets’ you find on the way. If your goal is the back door, get to the back door. You cannot be everywhere at once. Unless what happens stops you from actually hacking a base, then maintain your target and let other people take care of other things. *Don’t put up with back seat leaders. If they want to run a squad, let them go and run one, being SL is tough enough without every order being question in open chat. Private tells from soldiers who have different ideas are ok and you want ideas from them. But constant nagging in open chat that your ideas are wrong and theirs are better helps no one, even if its true. It causes aggravation quicker than anything else in the game. Boot them. *Use Whisper Keys in Teamspeak. Set up whisper keys to be in contact with your officers so you can bounce ideas back and forth about targets and other information without putting it out on the main chat channel. Also set up respond macros in teamspeak bindkeys so that you can instantly assign a key to the last person that whispered to you (like backspace in game) so you can send and receive information from particular soldiers. *Use the Three R’s when planning an attack. Radical, Reliable & Regrettable. Look at these three ways to attack any situation. The radical is of course along the lines of rolling in guns blazing, which may be possible if there are less forces than you previously expected. The Reliable is what you will more likely fall back on as you approach the base and see that the Radical is impossible. Something more akin to a back door, or staircase attack. Regrettable is where will you respawn, and how you will attack AFTER your team is wiped out in the initial run. Usually a Tower rally. However, have ALL THREE in mind as you begin your assault. Command Rank Five Responsibilities How to lead effectively *Never Order, Always Ask. In the end, you really wield no true power whatsoever. Also, commanding people you otherwise rarely interact with around the battlefield could look a little pompous. So whenever possible always remember to ask for things rather then demand them, and when you get them, be sure to follow it up with a thank you or TY, and you will be appreciated for your kindness *Try and Respond to every tell from the field. Even if it’s just a roger that, which is certainly easy enough to macro, the fact that people know you are there to give information to, and that you respond will make them that much more accepting of your future plans. They know you listen to them, so they’re more apt to listen to you. You could get bogged down in tells, but I for one never seem to, and I always take time out to thank or acknowledge people with information or ideas. *Try and transfer any ‘NEED HELP’ info you receive. When more than one person calls for your help at a certain base or tower, be sure to put the word out that people in that area should help them. Use simple logic as to if it’s too far from the true battle to warrant it. When asking for something. If you do not get a response after 10sec, ask again stating no one was responding. Do so again after 10sec more. The most important thing is, to get people to listen to you. *Consult the other commanders before any radical messages are sent. This is simple courtesy. See if anyone has a better idea than yours (it could happen) and let them know what you are about to do before you do it. If no one responds in any way after 30 seconds, consider it a blank check to take your idea to the masses, and good luck. (I’d ask again to be sure though) Use Globals ONLY in Emergencies. Try to respect other commanders with differing points of view. Everyone plays the game differently, there is no single right way. Make sure to listen, REALLY LISTEN to other commanders ideas before writing them off as not nearly as good as your own. There is ALWAYS more than one way to attack any situation. And NEVER openly insult other commanders decisions over continent chat, that’s just low class. If they made a bad mistake, the Zerg at large already knows it and doesn't need you to show them how smart you are by picking on the guy.